Opiate Dependence

Opiate Dependence

The Concise Oxford Dictionary states that dependence is not being able to do without something. For the purpose of this article, therefore, that would mean not being able to do without opiates.

Opiate dependency is thought to be an offshoot of substance abuse which is noted to result in lost productivity, family problems, and crime. The key player in that scenario has long been recognized as heroin, which is an opiate drug. However, although heroin dependency is still growing alarmingly, prescription pain killers, which are also opiates, is quickly rising to prominence. Prescription pain killers are available through physicians, and are given to persons suffering from chronic pain, who have had surgery, and sickle-cell and cancer patients who need pain relief. This reliance on the pain killers results in a dependence on the opiates.

A distinction has been tried to be made between a person who is an opiate dependent and one who is an opiate addict. It is felt that opiate dependents are not ‘drug addicts’ in the usual sense of the word, since they are persons with real medical ailments, but who find themselves in a similar situation as drug addicts – that of being dependent on the pain killers. In fact, it is felt that these drugs are so addictive that even a small percentage of the doctors who prescribe them become addicts also.

Much of the problems that society is facing today, in terms of crime, are caused by its own reaction to opiate dependency. Opiate dependency was at one time looked on as a condition that did not have a solution. It was viewed as a psychological addictive personality disorder or a dysfunctional family life disorder. The medical community was not keen to find a solution to this hopeless condition, and so they ignored it, refusing to treat it, which has unmistakable repercussions.

For one thing, opiate dependence has, over the years, permeated every generation, strata of society, and culture. Dependents also believed that their characters were flawed and there was no hope of getting away from the agony that the disease caused. They therefore adopted society’s view of them and became criminals or at least social outcasts, rather than seeing themselves as patients in need of help. Lacking human value, therefore, opiate dependents have forced the society to be on the defensive against them.

But there is hope! There is now available an effective treatment for the condition, but both the opiate dependent patients and society as a whole, need to be re-educated. Signs of opiate dependency need to be recognized and the consequences understood. This will hopefully motivate the dependents to seek treatment early, thus preventing the loss of their self esteem, jobs, families, and even their lives.

There is available the Waismann Method known as Rapid Opiate Detox, which is thought to be a proven and safe method of reversing the physical opiate dependency of a patient. The Rapid detox treatment available in a Southern Californian full service hospital is a medical procedure used to rid the body of opiates rapidly. The procedure is performed while the patient is sedated, with the assistance of qualified and experienced Anesthesiologists who are capable of perfecting the treatment.

The Waismann Method of Rapid Detox surpasses the usual detoxification procedures which involve painful withdrawals and are not very successful. It allows most patients to spend less time in hospitals and rehabilitation programs, as they are able to return to a productive life within days of the procedure. It makes use of the most advanced medical biotechnology that is available currently.

The procedure also uses cutting-edge research on opiate dependency both physically and psychologically, and so its success supersedes all the other methods. It is reputed to be able to reverse the physical opiate dependency of a patient without causing unnecessary suffering, shame, or fear in the patients. The procedure neither participates in opiate replacement treatments nor engages in substituting a legal, prescribed dependency, like methadone, for example. As it has successfully treated numerous patients who were suffering from a physical addiction to opiates, from all over the world, there is a steady, weekly inflow of patients from worldwide locations, to the medical hospital in California.